The changing structure of China’s pearl river delta megacity region

Abstract

Based on traditional spatial gravity interaction models, urban quality and the time it takes for people or goods to move between cities are strongly correlated and the extent to which cities are integrated or have the capacity to become integrated into an interconnected urban network changes as travel time between cities changes. This paper analyses China’s Pearl River Delta (PRD) megacity region based on a modified gravity model combined with spatial analysis. It also analyzes economic relations between cities within the PRD megacity region, and compares China’s recent ‘new-style’ urbanization planning in Guangdong Province – the region’s largest and economically most important province – with planning for Guangdong that pre-dated China’s 2014 National New Style Urbanization Plan. The results show that PRD is now a bi-polar megacity region dominated by Guangzhou and Shenzhen and that four out of six cities the province planned to integrate into the core after 2005 have been integrated, but two have not. In order to build a successful global urban region, PRD needs to continue to improve its core, accelerate the integration of city clusters that can realistically be integrated, continue to study the integration potential of cities with less development potential and pay attention to balanced development of peripheral cities.